Sunday, March 23, 2014

Tough Stuff

I'm a big fan of my Ford F150 truck. It's a 1997 and works just fine. I've never had a problem with it, and I don't need a new one because this one is very nearly perfect. I believe in buying American, and I'm all for Henry Ford and the car company he founded.

With all that said, I noticed some Ford commercials today and I have been wondering about something ever since. Who makes up these slogans? Why do we buy in to them?

Here's the first one that caught my attention today: BUILT FORD TOUGH. Really. All I could think about was, if they think a truck is tough, they should meet a single mom trying to work, make a happy home, raise two or three children, and teach them about Jesus while she figures out how she's going to pay the bills every month and still get them through college. The mama who does without so her children can have a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs is tough. You want to build a tough truck, build one MAMA TOUGH.

Tough is the child at St. Jude fighting for his life while caring doctors and nurses poke, prod, and do all manner of painful things that would be inhumane anywhere else, but are accepted and even expected in an attempt to kill the cells devouring that little precious one from the inside out. Tough is the child that misses a year in school with his friends while he is sicker than most people will ever know, yet still has a happy smile. That's tough, and it's tougher than any pile of metal could ever be.

Here's another slogan that bothered me today: WE OWN WORK. What does that mean? Really, I worked pretty hard this week, and I didn't see Ford anywhere around. There were several times when my schedule was so busy a hardworking Ford person might have been really handy.

It's not that I'm against Ford. They make fine trucks, and they made mine. I'm not against public relations. I'm not against slogans. Today, though, I'm just wondering where we get these silly ideas, why we seem to respond to them, and what in the world has happened to our critical thinking skills?

Here's my challenge for today. The next time you see an ad for anything, ask yourself if that is hype or reality. Engage your mind instead of mindlessly accepting all you see.

And one more thing. The next time you hear about tough, I hope you remember the Toughest One of all, who carried the sin of the world to Calvary, paid the price with His life, and rose again to set us free. Now THAT'S TOUGH!